Voluntary work or lose benefits

[Marjoriew]

Government intend to cut benefits of claimants on JSA who refuse to do voluntary work of 30 hours a week over a 4-week period.
Benefits could be stopped for up to 3 months if claimants refuse to comply.

edam, I believe you are right.

Ooh loudlass - we agree!

I'm not in favour of removing benefits from the needy; but I do think the situation has gone so far (a) it is unsustainable financially, and (b) we have almost lost the link between work and self-improvement, by making the sort of salaries needed to replace benefits (esp housing costs) basically ungettable by anyonewho is not a graduate/highly skilled worker.

I think we need to slowly return to a situation wher ordinary people can actually earn a living wage doing a normal job, where a typical house costs 3 X salary, and where no-one need be dependent on benefits whilst in full-time work!

Sumfin: the last thing on a deserting father's mind is oooh goody the tax payer will pick up the bill. He doesn't give a shite about what's left behind. That's because there is no sense of moral obligation, no family values, no sense of community. Kinda like you.

granted - but Gordon Brown wanted to pay benefits to people that had no genuine need for them...that way they'd be more likely to vote Labour come the big election...for fear of giving them up and having to (shock, horror!) fend for themselves!

kissingfrogs - yeah, sure...

Pay women to get pregnant and they will do so.

Pay blokes to f*ck vulnerable and simple women without any come-back and they will do so.

it's not voluntary work, it's forced labour. bring back the workhouses, why don't you?

the whole thing is embarrassingly unworkable, the minute people work for nothing, wages for everyone else in that industry plummet.

I concur, granted! It's the point I've been trying to make on all these threads, that if housing costs were not something like 14 TIMES my DP's income, we wouldn't NEED to claim Tax Credits. Though I'm not over-enamoured with the things that the ConDems are trying to push through, I personally believe that the worst thing Labour did was bring in Minimum wage, I feel that has artificially held down wages over the last 10 years, and then to sort out the mistake of minimum wage, they had NO CHOICE but to bring in Tax Credits to make up the shortfall because employers had realised they were onto a good thing!

And why do so many people on here seem to think that JSA claimants are single mums? Only single mums with DC over the age of 7yo will be on JSA, other than that it is single people with no dependants, or couples (mostly), often where the main earner in the couple has been made redundant. Why all the talk of 'feckless fathers'? While I do agree that there are some out there, I have yet to meet anyone, be they on benefits or not, that hasn't had a baby whilst being in a relationship with the father. Not that many people (or at least not that I've met) set out to be a single parent.

I actually feel sick at that. I'm off.

Loudlass - the sad fact is...for too many young women, the (welfare) sums add up in their favour if they have a child and are single.....

Sumfin is a troll.

BTP - bless.

wubblybubbly - seeyah.

sumfing, shame on you. go to hell for that.

I've reported Sumfin

The point he/she is badly making is that abused children are usually the result of poor parenting but I believe JB parents were married at the time and had jobs so WTF ?

Sumfin - There WAS a need for Tax Credits when they were brought in, just as there is now. A wage of less than £25-£30K is just not going to pay all your rent, pay your gas, electric and water bills and feed a family. When there is a high proportion of Full Time Employees working for £12K...how would you do that? Without Tax Credits, at this precise moment, there would be whole swathes of society becoming homeless, and begging on the streets for food, as their wages just do not cover living costs, and employers COULD NOT absorb a wage rise like that overnight, not without going bust or leaving the country for India/CHina.

The only workable solution I can see to this, is to (slowly, over the course of 5-10yrs to allow businesses to absorb the increased costs) rise minimum wage incrementally at the same time as decreasing Tax Credits levels, until we get to the situation where no more Tax Credits NEED to be paid because employees are being paid a living wage by their employers? Workable? YES. Quick enough for Tory Voters / people who would not be affected by a sudden total withdrawal of TC's without a wage rise to match? NO. Therefore will it ever happen?Probably not.

And I've reported your last post. Those comments are sickening.

granted Sun 07-Nov-10 22:23:31

"It's interesting reading this thread that virtually all those who've actually done this sort of scheme say how good it was and how much it helped them get a job."

On the other hand, those who had experience of working with untrained casual volunteers were far less convinced of its efficiency.

Loudlass - no, the answer is for people to recognise that they should only have children if they can afford to bring them up without State support.

If we pay people to have children then they will continue to do so.

What comments?

Have you heard of freedom of speech?